Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 230. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $6400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Abdera. Circa 530-500 BC. AR Oktadrachm (29.63 gm). Griffin seated left, right forepaw raised; pellets flanking, rosette to left / Rough quadripartite incuse square. May, Abdera, Group IXa, 14/1a (A13/1 / P13/1 ­ this coin); AMNG II -; Asyut -; BMC Thrace -; SNG Copenhagen -; Rosen -. VF, toned, a few spots of horn silver. Excellent strike and metal. Apparently unique, this was the only example located by May. ($5000)

From the William and Louise Fielder Collection.

The dating of May's earliest periods was modified following the analysis of the Asyut hoard.

THE COINAGE of ABDERA

Abdera has its mythological foundation in the Labors of Herakles, who founded the city in honor of his companion Abderos after the latter was killed by the mares of Diomedes. Historically the first recorded settlement was a failed colonization effort by Klazomenaians under the leadership of Timesias in 656 BC, but neither of these events have left any concrete traces in the historical record. It was in 541 BC that citizens of Teos, fleeing the Persian conquest of Ionia, established a long-lasting civic entity. Thus the unchanging numismatic symbol of Abdera, the griffin adopted from the coinage of the lost home city, Teos. Abdera’s production of massive silver oktadrachms begins within a decade of the founding of the city, and reflects the reason for the success of this foundation as opposed to the earlier failure; at the beginning of the 6th century BC the prolific silver mines of Thrace started coming on line, and trading cities such as Abdera and Thasos were well positioned to claim their portion of the wealth. While producing large quantities of silver coins, the city also introduced one of the earliest series of signed coinage by annual magistrates. While the obverse type was invariably a griffin, the reverses, once they evolved beyond the simple quadripartite square in the late 5th century, seem to have been left to the whim of the magistrates, who responded with a delightful repertoire of varied types, mythological and naturalistic, a number featuring visual puns on the magistrate’s name. This was the period of Abdera’s greatest achievements, of well known citizens such as Demokritos, the ‘laughing philosopher’, and Protagoras, the most celebrated of the sophists. The failed revolt against Athens in 411 BC proved only a slight hiatus in the city’s prosperity. However, the final end would come within a generation, as the production of the Thracian silver mines began to slow (or was diverted to the growing power of Macedon) and the Thracian tribes became increasingly restive. In 375 BC the Abderan army was decimated by the Triballoi, and only closer confederacy with Athens preserved the city. Its annual coinage issues ceased, and after this period little precious metal coinage was struck in Abdera. By the time of the coming of the Romans in the 2nd century BC the great trading city of Abdera had sunk into permanent obscurity.